


The Hound in Hot Pursuit

by Etnoe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 20:23:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody flirts like Jade Harley. Dave is in no way prepared, but just maybe, he still has a trick or two of his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hound in Hot Pursuit

* * *

 

Jade looked up, and it was like running into a wall. The sky was blue again.

There were some clouds and some birds, and then just delicate shades of blue. She stared in what was almost disbelief, and quite a lot of relief. The sight wasn't like a wall, actually - more like closing a book; shutting the cookaliser hatch; stepping out of the rock pool watching all the creatures that had got used to you scurrying back under rocks or clamming up.

At night, without all the blue light from the sun building a roof for the world as it struck atmospheric dust, Jade would be able to see into space. She'd see the beginnings of everything with plain old eyes and glasses, and maybe everything would begin: Her brain would open up again, up and outward and forever.

Right now, all she had to see was a sky she knew, and she didn't have to think of all that other stuff at all.

Gravity delivered a chuck to her chin as she looked down to catch Kanaya's eye. Friendly as it was - a reminder that it was there, paying attention - the little knock of a feeling gave extra conviction to her impression of an explosion: She brought her fists to her chest, then made whooshing, bursting sounds as she opened them up and extended her fingers into wriggling star-shapes (not real stars! Sheesh, universe, give it a rest.).

"Quite." Kanaya smiled and pulled herself up, the shift of her shoulders and a tilt of her head making her look more elegant and not quite so tired. (She must have watched a ton of movies featuring Troll Audrey Hepburn or somebody; they so had to compare favourites.) She nodded. "That sums up my feelings on the matter better than I would have expected had you stated your intent to make that gesture, so it's just as well you didn't. That was explosive in many senses, most of which I'm not sure anyone should possess."

They'd pulled their new universes together. They'd done it _right_. She could still feel the echoes of the spin of it all. It was a Big. Fucking. Deal, explode-y in the general sense as well as emotional. Still.

It wasn't a surprise they could do it.

Sinking to the sand on hands and knees, Jade's face hurt from grinning, from cheeks to her temples to her ear beds. "Woo!"

"Woo!" John echoed, dropping beside her and putting a hand on her back. "Are you okay?"

"Her lexicon seems to have been reduced to sound effects," Kanaya said. "Otherwise I believe Jade's fine, as she shouldn't have experienced anything too differently to what I experienced. Jade?"

There were the sounds of footsteps, picking their way across the sand, marching, shuffling, and before any of them arrived there was the sideways blur of Dave's flash step, solidifying. His shadow popped up suddenly across hers and John's, and Jade grinned again at it, enjoying the ache in her cheeks.

She turned the smile up at her friends before making a Grinch face at Kanaya. "If the experience was so similar, how come you don't have to sit down?"

Kanaya smoothed her green and purple dress. She'd said it was For The Occasion.

"Maryam prefers to get down, you have no idea how strong the cocktail party and orgy gene is encoded in vampire DNA." Dave squatted on his heels beside her, balancing on a broken sword and probably looking her over - stupid sunglasses - to see if she was all right. Was everyone else? "She's got to stay classy to do it right. Hey, John, Jade said she needs to sit down. Get that hand away, who knows where it's been."

"There's got to be a better place to rest than right out here in the sun, dude." John steadied her as she accepted his hand up.

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy." Jade gave Dave a reassuring smile, and then squinted upwards. Looking at the solidity of the sky helped to get rid of the dizzy feeling.

The others had reached them now, and all seemed fine after a quick look-over - only as battered as they had been in the first place. Aradia wasn't there, but no one seemed freaked out that she wasn't standing with them. She was probably checking on Jane and the rest, or putting the news out on the dream bubble circuit. It had been nice of the other players to understand about leaving them to themselves, so they could relax as hard as possible with the people they knew best, but then, they'd seemed to feel the same way too.

Rose pointed up the beach. "You seem to have provided quite suitable short-notice shelter in those bushes over there."

"Oh yeah?" Jade peered round the others. "Gosh, those are exactly where they're supposed to be! Kanaya, let's go find my favourite spot to sit, right over there. We are the ones most in need of a good spot!"

Kanaya looked perkier. "There's somewhere comfortable to sit down?"

"Not _super_ comfortable. But come on! It's nice!"

Also, Kanaya would understand if the spot didn't exist, which would be nice. It probably would, though; the beach looked exactly like the one from back at home. She really had managed to recreate it.

She showed Kanaya the outcrop of rocks, roots of the volcano (though she'd left off the actual volcano) that bumped up smooth and black under the sand, where some bushes grew high and dense enough to provide a big crawlspace of shade. Kanaya opted for the stones that got the least shade and elegantly kicked off her shoes. Jade was glad that the skirt of her own outfit was reasonably short, or Kanaya would have had a lot to say about the style faux pas of yoinking your dress up over your knees.

They heaved deep sighs in unison, which made Jade nearly fall over giggling and Kanaya give a snort.

"Looks like the others feel about the same as us." Jade pointed towards their friends - and then waved back as Rose looked over in time to catch the motion and waved. Of course she had. Demi-dog powers were pretty fucking stupendous, but never let it be said that Seer of Light powers weren't cool. "I think John's decided he actually is going to lie right there on the sand!"

"No doubt Karkat will micro-manage him to within an inch of his life very shortly. Or possibly Gamzee will trip him in an effort to make him do the same as John. But yes, I think everyone appreciates your suggestion of taking time to relax before we tackle Our Next Great Task."

She could enunciate with accuracy and speed that made Jade want to put a rifle in her hands and a target ahead of her, and also made her absolutely refuse to think about Their Next Great Task. They'd beaten the Game and now they were free of it - and it never had been the kind of game where either of those things was true. At least it was as true as it could be, and that was so _huge_ that it felt okay to take a break, even from something like caretaking a universe. Duoverse? Whatever! Later!

They watched as the others wandered the beach and did nothing much - digging into food from their sylladices, exploring, talking in little clusters, resting. Jade had the urge to watch from higher up where it would be easier to note everything, another demi-dog thing. Also a creeper thing, so nope, not going there. She sat back in the familiar heat, remembering the scent of the air she breathed as she breathed it.

Everything really was the same. There was even more than it was possible to remember, but all of that had sleeted through her in the moments before she opened her eyes here, on the beach, in their universe. It was silly to have suggested that she make this place, like she wanted to go back to being thirteen, like she could feel again that she was prepared for everything to come. But it really was the nicest place she could think of to relax. Maybe not exactly for the trolls, but they did have to get used to the idea that being under a cooler sun was all right, and Kanaya was soaking it up.

Jade dug her toes into the warm sand, because it was the exact opposite of the feeling she got when she thought about how this beach wasn't attached to her island, and Bec and her house weren't a few minutes' walk out of sight. So that pretty much balanced out. And it was years ago, jeez.

She focused on the others again, sighing. Everybody was still doing much the same thing. Something about the air that seemed slow, like humidity except that it wasn't that humid. Jade felt a little melted, like toffee left out in the sun. Languid. Grandpa would have put it that way if he got in the mood. Would Jake say that kind of thing in a few years?

Beside her, Kanaya shifted and stopped staring. She could get really quiet when she got into looking at people, which Jade was pretty sure had to do with going into predator mode. "Now seems to be a good time to set your plan in motion," Kanaya said, and then held up a hand. "And I would like to pre-empt any worries you might have as to its success by saying that you don't need to consider broaching the entirety of the subject right away, but could simply take this as a first step."

" _And_ you'd like to see how the swimming costume fits."

"Um."

"Okay!" Jade shook off that slow feeling, literally, shaking her head as if her ears had got wet. She stood, feet now firm on the sand. "Decaptchalogue that outfit, Ms. Maryam. Dogs can't be chickens, and I do not intend to try!"

A bikini, plus a little wrap-around skirt, and even with strappy sandals included, wasn't really an outfit. It was a lot less of an outfit than she had been wearing, definitely - but that was the point. Jade took a deep breath as she emerged from behind the dune where she'd changed into the beachwear, exchanged thumbs-up with Kanaya, and headed down the beach.

Dave was upright and still at the edge of the waves, sleeves and trouser legs of his godhood outfit rolled up and his sword still out, balanced on one shoulder.

Two seconds later Dave was upright, splashed _right_ on the crotch by Terezi, and mostly still except for the way his mouth put up the good fight to be allowed to frown. He remained very much Dave: sort of impressive and super silly, and Jade flexed her hands into fists. Forward march, make your declarations.

"Dave!" Jade waved with an outstretched arm sweeping 60-110 degree angles of an imaginary circle (pssh, don't even start making me think how that would translate to a sphere!). "You've never been to the beach?"

He looked over his shoulder. He looked some more, a beat that made the silence a little long. But all he said after that was, "How'd you know?"

That was still a reaction! "Just guessing!" Jade jogged closer for one-and-a-half steps, realised the utter lack of support a bikini-top provided, and teleported to beside him. "You always called me lucky for living on an island, and asked if a furry with a fish fetish should be called a scaly, and those kinds of things."

"Yeah, I remember those hard-hitting yet sensitive questions that cut straight to the heart of the matter now. Hanging on my every word, that's excellent work, keep it up."

"How could I forget? It's not every day you hear something that ridiculous." She grinned at him—and suddenly felt stupid about it, over aware of her teeth and her nose scrunching up.

Now that was a thing that was really ridiculous. There was nothing that could be more ridiculous than feeling stupid about talking to Dave! That was the antithesis of what talking to Dave was about. Time to get this back on track.

Jade brushed hair behind an ear, which was a definite signal, if the internet knew what it was talking about. "Umm. Hey. So I came over because ... do you mind if we talk?"

"You have got an undeniable hotness for wordmongers, you realise. Between me, Vantas, and the dark yet glowing horse of Maryam, I have got to conclude you have the hots for a lot of dirty talk."

"The dirtiest. Um," Jade said, breaking the flow of how they'd normally keep going with that kind of thing. "I mean ... talk somewhere else. Just us?"

It was hot and Dave had already been pink about the face, but she thought she detected a blush. It would make everything easier if she knew whether he was looking at her breasts or not! When basically any animal but a human put on a mating display, it was easy to tell if the courted partner was interested or not.

"Sure," said Dave. He looked over to where Terezi was now busy getting dunked by Aradia and Sollux contributed half-hearted splashes to the affair. "Seems like my duty to provide entertainment is over, so. Somewhere else. Beam me up, Scottie dog."

"I'd like to walk!" Jade set off before he could ask why. Not that it would be a difficult question, anybody could like to just walk ... urgh. "Do you like my outfit?" she asked, because _something_ had to be straightforward around here.

"Harley, I'll be honest. I can't find it." Here he did not skip a beat. Dave Strider, back on form. He was probably giving himself a mental high five.

"But it's a nice colour and stuff, right? Kanaya says all the green sets off my eyes and skin!"

"All I know about fashion is limited to seriously fucking awesome suits. But I'm not about to claw my eyes out, here, I can say as a friend that you look, uh, does John have any mental script about protective brotherly tendencies that he'll feel a need to act out, or anything?"

They strode up a little dune, Jade enjoying the slog in the sand. So there. Walking was totally enjoyable. "John's all the way back there. Who cares?"

"No caring. Why would anyone care, yeah. So this beach is your own private corner of paradise?"

Sudden subject change, so there was no more need to comment on the bikini. Hmm... "Yeah. My favourite place."

"Nice."

"I wanted you to see it."

Dave looked back towards the others as if to include them in the statement; Jade didn't, and when he turned back she was pretty sure it was easy to tell that she hadn't looked away from him. It was part of the plan! Of course she'd done it for them too - but, well, she really did want Dave to see all this...

She wasn't blushing yet, because this _was_ the plan. But the blushing would probably start pretty soon.

"You made a beach for me? Honey, that's so sweet. Honey, it's not even our anniversary. Are you cheating, honey? Is that what this is about? Don't you lie to me, I can see you trying to butter me up like I'm the French toast and that Davesprite is your orange juice, isn't he, isn't he honey?"

"Yeah!"

"What?"

It was actually a question, with inflection and everything, and he'd stopped walking! He was stunned and showed it, and Jade's fingertips tingled. "I, um. Made it ... for all you guys, really, but um. You're the one I'm taking to look at rock pools. Just. You and me, Dave."

Dave's adam's apple bobbed in his throat.

"Well then let's go," he said, starting to walk, "tell me all about this exciting tale of tidal life like a vivacious  
falsetto David Attenborough, that really does sound like my idea of a party. Come on, wow me."

Jade looked at the shells of his ears, gone bright red against the black arms of his sunglasses. "I will!"

He nearly fell over.

Jade gave him a break. They were at the pools, and she felt like checking on her favourite spots. Pointing out all the cool stuff to see filled in the quiet nicely. Dave was quiet at first (needing to recover from direct hits! ...direct being-hit-ons!) and then back to normal, listening, talking, eyeing the surroundings for trouble, initiating and doing commentary on hot pebble-on-anemone action four times because she kept giggling until she choked. He picked his way across the rocks easily and steadily, smooth in spite of being in an environment he didn't know at all. She kind of just wanted to watch him move. For long, long moments she did exactly that, eyes flicking over to him as they picked their way around the pools.

Long moments. Really ... really long moments...

"Dave!" Jade stopped short, staring into space - the space that was as melted-toffee as she'd felt almost since appearing on the beach. It dragged itself around in slow circles, and then she blinked hard to clear her vision. "You have been stretching the shit out of these minutes! And out of all the time since we got here! It feels like it's been _hours_ and it hasn't been!"

"Oh, fuck this shit, fuck it."

Jade stared over at him now, as he turned and nearly stamped away, except stamping didn't work so well on jagged rocks. No grace now, only awkwardness. "I'm just surprised, not upset about it."

"It seemed like a nice thing to do, all right? So everybody could fucking rest for once." The stomping turned into a walk as he put his sword away in his strife specibus and he picked his direction, going back towards the others.

Then he turned right back around to her, catching the downward curl of her mouth, the way she was about to call out, the furrow in her forehead. It was annoying when Dave caught her looking upset. It could get him acting so dumb. Normally.

"And maybe I." His voice was a little rough. "Stretched these last couple of minutes the most."

Jade stepped closer to him, feeling as if the rocks might run right out from under her. "It is a _really, really_ nice thing, Dave! Hey, you know what - I could join in with that!" She reached him and Dave didn't move back. It might have cost him some effort. "Space and time. It would be like a symphony."

She felt that old feeling, the one-two step turnaround flip-ways where she wasn't sure if the world was a dream or not. It would be too easy, it would be too right, and it really would be a symphony, making waves wide enough to resound off the curves of the galaxy.

"Jade," said Dave, and his voice was suddenly rock steady once more. "Did you just say we could make beautiful music together? That's it. I redeem all coupons for cool. You're gonna have to get somebody to build a street corner for you to stand on and hold your cup out, rattling out a hopeless tune with the few slickness cents the ice cold populace tossed in."

"We _could_ make beautiful music together!" said Jade, stepping up. Nose to his. Stupid, stupid, amazing poker-faced Dave didn't move. "We have already had practice, duh."

"Yeah, well, it's not that hard for a natural like me to slap a backbeat on a bass line like yours and up the quantity of jamming such a tune engenders." Dave swallowed audibly. And still didn't move! "What next, Harley. First the nose rubbing, then you're going to get all lockjaw around my throat to establish yourself as the alpha of the pack? Going to lift your leg against me? I have to warn you, shorty don't play that way."

If she was any judge, it was the awareness that he'd actually talked about her peeing on him that was starting up this blush; the red rose upwards from his neck, leaving him looking like a thermometer ... and yet - _any second now_ he was going to decide it was vital to his equilibrium to keep talking about peeing, and to get grosser about it!

Jade did rub the tips of their noses together as preventative. Then she performed her own thermometer impression, and was the one to finally move back to more reasonable personal space. It was probably a good thing she didn't have a tail to wag (though it would have been really nice to be able to get that expressive sometimes).

"Dave," she stage-whispered, then laughed. "I don't think I'm very good at subtle!"

"Jesus Christ, just tell me what are you doing."

"Putting the moves on you."

"Oh, well, I see, that's just mind if you keep going with the explanations?"

"I can't see the future anymore." She gave half a shrug. "Well, you know, I haven't been able to in forever. Or maybe it's more like, I haven't been able to think I know the future, at all, and I used to be so sure about all that. Annoying you guys with the oracle girl thing, and then that turned out wrong in only about a billion ways."

"Wasn't annoying. A little mystical bullshit always brightens up the day, you clearly need to stop neglecting Rose if you've forgotten that basic tenet of a happy and fulfilling life."

Jade brushed her knuckles against his and tucked her chin down, as if there was a chance he might see the lump in her throat. He could get so sweet about little stuff. "Anyway! It doesn't matter if I can't see the future. I decided that long ago, thinking over my issues with my dream self and Jadesprite and all that stuff. I can make the future!" Gravity tugging at her, at him and all of them, at the sand and the waves - and her tugging back. "But not just in the big ways. In the way where, um, you know." He didn't. That was the whole point about being straightforward. "Ummmm. Where you know I like you."

"The announcement goes out. A million hearts break," said Dave. "Clear across the space-time continuum - I'm jacked right in there, I can tell."

"But two don't!" Jade said. Which might be stupid, was it stupid? Playing along with each other was what they did, but she could be picking the wrong way to play. "Maybe? Two are, um, buoyed by ironic acceptance? We're talking like we're Nepeta!"

"Bite your tongue, Jesus. We're talking like. Like I'm a dick who thinks it's cool to set up some line about the universe's pain because a Strider has been taken off the market and then I don't know, literally sweep you off your feet. Conclude by falling ass over teakettle into a killer jellyfish."

"Dave!" She flung her arms around him, warm and solid, and warmer still as his arms crept around her too. "We're dating!"

"Yeah." He sounded steamrollered, but he'd said once that that was something he'd miss if she ever stopped doing it. "Holy shit?"

"Co-signed!"

"Cool, so," Dave said, "my voice is going to crack in fucking half, can't talk, pretending to have dignity."

What he did do was take another pull at the time stream and make it into molasses all around them, and Jade listened to the hitch of his breath as he squeezed his arms around her.

Yeah, her breathing was getting slightly sticky too. They _were_ going to make it, all of them, make the future and more. Jade looked up enough to see the only star visible to her at the moment.

Sunlight refracted a fraction away from how it was possible for it to be so it could become soft and gold for them, and she and Dave swayed to the soundlessness.


End file.
